Leinster were handed a 51-10 beating by Wasps on Saturday night, and speaking after the game, Leo Cullen was not pleased with the number of mistakes that his side made.
Speaking about his side's performance in the early stages, he said "I thought we started the game really well, showed good intent [...] created a lot of opportunities in the first half and went in five points behind, and we're still in the game at that point".
After conceding an early penalty and try in the second half however, it was a different story as Cullen's side were 15 points behind and facing an uphill battle to get back into the game.
For the Leinster head coach, the score might not be an accurate or fair reflection of what happened out on the pitch, as he added that his side had to start chasing the game in the second half.
Image: ©INPHO/James Crombie
"They were just scoring off turnovers, we were bashing away trying to break their defensive line [...] and we turned the ball over cheaply and with some of the pace that they have, they just gassed in for scores on a few occasions".
Cullen highlighted that he was left with a sense of disappointment on the day mainly because "we made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes [and] we played ourselves into trouble too often in that second half".
Cullen also stated that his side's inability to regroup and get back to the game plan really cost them in the match: "It's disappointing we didn't show a bit more steely resolve halfway through that second half because we gave up a lot of very, very cheap points".
Given comments he made earlier in the year about whether Leinster would be able to compete given the budget of the clubs in England and France, Cullen was positive when assessing the way the team has come through the last few weeks, saying "we would still feel that we're well able to challenge at the top end. We played against a very strong Bath team last week at home in the RDS and we were pretty dominant".
Image: ©INPHO/James Crombie
A very worrying point for both Leinster and Ireland was the head injury suffered by Johnny Sexton which could mean that he is doubt for the Six Nations, along with Marty Moore.
Cullen provided precious little detail, simply saying that while he had a knock to the head, he was up and walking around in the dressing room after the game, but the extent of Moore's injury had yet to be revealed.
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